'Back To The Bar': Bacardi Aims To Engage Customers While Keeping Employees Happy

Bacardi turned 157 last week and the largest privately held spirits company in the world attributes its success to the understanding of what it takes to create a great drink experience for the customers.

Back To The Bar

‘Back to the Bar’, an annual event which saw more than 7,000 Bacardi employees across 130 global cities turning up at more than 1000 bars on the same day interact with bar staff and customers, allows the company to interact with customers and access insights, keeping them at the heart of everything Bacardi does.

Aligning To The Founders’ Mentality 

Arijit Sengupta, Director Human Resources, Bacardi India explains the logic behind the initiative, “Back to the Bar allows us to reconnect with our roots, think like founders and put our own feet on the street to see first-hand how our business, bars, and consumers are changing. For generations, the Bacardí family has encouraged all employees to think like salespeople, with the ability to influence the business at a grassroots level. For the people at Bacardi, visiting bars is often more work than play as we do on-the-ground research and put ourselves in the role of salespeople and influencers. The initiative reminds us that while we work with a number of brands every day, the key is to have them translate into drinks that people enjoy. Back to the Bar gives us insight both into our consumers’ palates and the experience within which they choose to drink.” 

The initiative not only allows Bacardi to narrate the story of its exciting brands to the customers but helps Bacardi employees relive those stories and look back at the history of the brands; reigniting the company’s entrepreneurial spirit and culture.

Arijit Sengupta adds, “In addition to building employee engagement, ‘Back to the Bar’ is also a chance for us to thank the bars and restaurants who support us and the world’s best bartenders, who are truly on the cutting edge of what’s new and next in our business and are the on-ground extension of our team.” 

Social media channels allow employees to share their experiences and a wider reach to more than just the customers coming to the bar. Arijit plays down the importance of social media, “Providing insight and transparency into who the people behind our brands allow us to connect with our audience in a genuine way and build a high impact positive association with them.” 

Mental Wellbeing

Initiatives like ‘Back to the Bar’ connect with Bacardi’s aim to cultivate founder’s mentality and inspire a progressive, trend-focused and curious mindset within the organization, allowing each employee to always do what’s right for the business. This sense of ownership and entrepreneurial and passionate spirit goes a long way in building positive, motivated and growth-focused teams.

Rajguru Tandon

BW Reporters The author is a correspondent with BW Businessworld with keen interest in HR and employee welfare.